Pelagic working voyages interspersed with local patch and occasional twitch birding news

Friday, 13 April 2012

Migrant mix.

Strange days recently with regard to visible migration. Yesterday and the day before (11-12/04), I didn't see a bird (wind Beaufort 3 NW) other than the resident seabirds with a nice line of 10 cory's shearwaters being the pick of the crop. Today (13/04 - wind Beaufort 5 SW) has been rather frantic, with the following noted:- 1 sardinian warbler, 2 house martins, 3 turtle doves, 1 yellow wagtail, 2 chiffchaffs, 4 willow warblers, 1 orphean warbler, 2 subalpine warblers and a cracking male pied flycatcher- my 39th positively ID'd bird species for this voyage.

I finally managed reasonable shots of turtle dove and subalpine warbler, but unfortunately the juicy pied fly and orphean did not want to play with my camera!

Turtle dove- 1 of 3 today

subalpine warbler

just a few more days of survey to go then I can think about some proper birding back in the UK!

About Me

My formative birding years were spent primarily at CVL, Portland, Marazion and PG. I have lived in Mullion, St. Ives, Plymouth, Bristol and Aberdeen. I studied for a first degree in Plymouth and a masters in Aberdeen. Since the late nineties I have worked as a sea-going scientific observer/surveyor specialising in fisheries, seabirds and marine mammals. I've worked in many of the worlds' oceans from South Georgia to Greenland and from the Atlantic to the Indian ocean. In the south Atlantic I monitored albatross mortality within commercial fishing fleets and have also undertaken extensive seabird surveys off Greenland, in UK waters, the Med. and in the central Indian ocean. I am a JNCC ESAS certified seabird surveyor, JNCC certified marine mammal observer, certified CCAMLR scientific observer and a regional tuna fisheries observer.
I'm not a photographer! - just a birder who takes photo's as and when birds present themselves- my camera is often in 'auto' mode!
I enjoy the company and dialogue of birders, naturalists and people who love the sea- many of whom I have been fortunate to meet in the field.